I was thinking about doing that this year. Anybody have a great recipe to offer? Ones assumes you can’t use the drippings for gravy. Should I still brine it? Do a rub? How long should I expect it to take? What if I just do a breast?
Every year, if we’re not traveling, we do Thanksgiving at our home, and I always do the bird in the smoker.
I plan on it taking the about the same time as it would in the oven. I use the smoker as an alternative to the oven for this – it’s not low & slow BBQ, but roasted at 350ish just as it would be inside.
I don’t use any sort of rub. Well, except that one year, but that was a mistake. Upon discovering a recipe for basil-rubbed turkey, one should not think, “What a novel idea, it must be one of those things that are better than they sound.” We all still remember The Year of the Green Turkey.
I do brine the bird overnight. After rinsing the brine off, I dry the skin well and slather with butter. Then I stuff the cavity with some fruit (apples, oranges, whatever is handy and one or two slices of bread to hold the fruit in. I shove the bird onto my chicken stand, and onto the smoker. The stuffing is mostly there to make the cavity smaller so that I can use my undersized chicken stand, but it does add some flavor and moisture. I discard the stuffing after cooking, and make a separate batch in the oven for consumption.
I like to apply some sort of fruit wood smoke – apple or cherry usually, but that’s optional.
I have used the drippings for gravy, but the resulting gravy has a very smoky flavor and is not to everyone’s taste. Don’t tell anyone, but I usually use one of those supermarket gravy mixes and add a bit of the smoky gravy to make something a bit more palatable to most.
I’ve done it a few times. Definitely brine it. You can rub it, too, but don’t use too much (if any) salt in your rub as your brine has already made the bird salty. Use a thermometer and pull the bird when it comes to 160 at the breast or 170 at the thigh. Let rest 15-20 minutes or so before cutting into it.
You have the Weber Smokey Mountain, IIRC. I may be jumping you ahead of Wiviott’s 5-lessons, but I do the turkey with an empty water pan (or no water pan) and try to get the cooking temperature over 300F. I’m not exactly sure what the temp is, but my turkey is generally done in 3 to 4 hours. Like I said, just use a meat thermometer to check for doneness, or you can cut into the thigh bone to see if the meat juices run clear.
I do turkey breast in the smoker. Definately brine beforehand.
I’m a little confused as to why people try to get the temp higher - isn’t that sort of defeating the purpose? I mean, I have an oven.
No. Crispier skin. You can do it at 250 if you want, it’s just not idea (for the way I like it, at any rate.) It’s not the same as doing it in the oven cuz there’s, um, smoke you know. I do chicken on the smoker the same way (although usually without a water pan at all). I warned you about the skin in the smoker thread, but it didn’t seem to bother you, so perhaps it won’t bother you on a turkey.
Yeah, I don’t find animal skin particularly appealing (except this one pork shoulder recipe I do; that shit is da bomb!) so it doesn’t really factor into my cooking choices.
In addition to pulykamell’s points, there’s also the fact that I’ve usually got three or four things competing for the oven that day. Cooking the turkey outdoors frees my oven for appetizers, baking, and such.
OK, but consider your guests. I’m sure there must be a few crispy skin lovers in the crowd.